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LABORATORY INVESTIGATION - HUMAN/ANIMAL TISSUE
A novel pre-clinical in vivo mouse model for malignant braintumor growth and invasion
Laura M. Shelton
•
Purna Mukherjee
•
Leanne C. Huysentruyt
•
Ivan Urits
•
Joshua A. Rosenberg
•
Thomas N. Seyfried
Received: 24 September 2009/Accepted: 4 January 2010/Published online: 13 January 2010

Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. 2010
Abstract
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a rapidlyprogressive disease of morbidity and mortality and is themost common form of primary brain cancer in adults. Lack of appropriate in vivo models has been a major roadblock todeveloping effective therapies for GBM. A new highlyinvasive in vivo GBM model is described that was derivedfrom a spontaneous brain tumor (VM-M3) in the VM mousestrain. Highly invasive tumor cells could be identiﬁed his-tologically on the hemisphere contralateral to the hemi-sphere implanted with tumor cells or tissue. Tumor cellswere highly expressive for the chemokine receptor CXCR4and the proliferation marker Ki-67 and could be identiﬁedinvading through the pia mater, the vascular system, theventricular system, around neurons, and over white mattertracts including the corpus callosum. In addition, the braintumor cells were labeled with the ﬁreﬂy luciferase gene,allowingfornon-invasivedetectionandquantitationthroughbioluminescent imaging. The VM-M3 tumor has a shortincubation time with mortality occurring in 100% of theanimals within approximately 15 days. The VM-M3 braintumor model therefore can be used in a pre-clinical settingfor the rapid evaluation of novel anti-invasive therapies.
Keywords
Glioblastoma multiforme

Invasion

Bioluminescence

CXCR4

IGFBP-2

Ki-67

VM mouse
Abbreviations
CT-2A Mouse astrocytomaCXCR4 Chemokine receptorGBM Glioblastoma multiformeIGFBP-2 Insulin-like growth factor bindingprotein 2Ki-67 Proliferation markerVM-M3 Invasive mouse malignant gliomaVM-M3/Fluc VM-M3 tumor cells labeled with ﬁreﬂyluciferaseVM-NM1 Mouse malignant glioma
Introduction
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common formof primary brain cancer in adults [1]. GBM has a pooroutcome due to its invasive and aggressive nature. Treat-ments have been largely ineffective and consist of surgicalresection followed by radiation and/or chemotherapy [1, 2].
Due to the invasive nature of GBM, complete surgicalremoval is not possible. Many GBM’s are multicentric,having secondary lesions at sites distant to the primarytumor [3–5]. In addition, chemotherapy and radiation are
toxic, often resulting in further brain damage [6]. Reliablemodels are required that focus on the invasive nature of GBM for pre-clinical studies and for drug development.Although a number of brain tumor models exist, nonerecapitulate all of the characteristics of a human GBM,such as the typical growth patterns and inﬁltrative behavior[7]. While xenograph models are attractive, the mousehosts are immune compromised and lack an immune-mediated response as well as a syngeneic host microenvi-ronment [8–10]. Additionally, human tumors grown as
xenographs tend to lose their invasive properties whengrown in vivo following in vitro culturing [11]
.
Tumor cell
L. M. Shelton

P. Mukherjee

L. C. Huysentruyt

I. Urits

J. A. Rosenberg

T. N. Seyfried (
&
)Boston College, Higgins Hall 140 Commonwealth Ave.,Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USAe-mail: seyfridt@bc.edu
1 3
J Neurooncol (2010) 99:165–176DOI 10.1007/s11060-010-0115-y
growth patterns in xenografts also do not replicate thetumor cell growth patterns seen in humans with GBM [8, 9,
11]
.
New animal models for GBM are therefore needed thatbetter reﬂect the properties seen in the natural host.Chemically induced models are grown in immunecompetent hosts and, to date, are some of the most com-monly used mouse syngeneic brain tumor models [12–15].
However, these brain tumors lack typical GBM growthpatterns and extensive invasion [7, 13]. Rat brain tumor
models are also available but are highly immunogenic thuscomplicating results of potential therapies [16]. There isalso evidence of spontaneous tumor regression in some ratmodels of brain cancer [17]. The rat CNS-1 glioma modelis useful for assessing immuno-based therapies because it isweakly immunogenic and has greater invasive propertiesthan those seen in the more common rat glioma models toinclude periventricular and perivascular spread [18]. Theleptomeningeal spread, however, could also be a result of the inoculation method [18]. In general, the invasiveproperties of most rodent models are limited to the area of the main tumor mass [9, 19]. Hence, most of the currently
available rodent brain tumor models do not reﬂect the fullspectrum of the growth and invasive characteristics of human GBM.Due to the limitations of current brain tumor models,transgenic models have been developed based on gain of function or targeted deletions in glioma-associated genes[20]. Complicated breeding and genotyping procedures,however, are required to generate these transgenic models[20–22]. Though these transgenic models often replicate
high-grade gliomas, a model with a mutation in a singlepathway is not a realistic representation of the humandisease because human gliomas contain a number of dis-tinct genetic abnormalities [8, 23, 24]. Also, the tumors that
develop are not always identical in morph or grade [8]. Asan alternative, MMLV (moloney murine leukemia virus)-based somatic gene-transfer glioma models rely on retro-viral infection of glial cells [22, 25]. This method allows
for the delivery of multiple genes thus bypassing the pro-duction of additional transgenic lines [8]. However, retro-viral infection is often non-speciﬁc, targeting numerouscells and resulting in heterogeneous tumors of unknowncellular srcin [21, 22].
In addition to the available rodent models, a number of dog breeds are predisposed to spontaneous brain tumors toinclude boxers and golden retrievers [26, 27]. Some of
these brain tumors are highly invasive and closely resemblethe histological and growth characteristics of human GBM[9, 28]. However, dog models are not readily available and
researchers would need to rely on the recruitment of recently diagnosed dogs for studies [9]. The speciﬁc gradeand type of dog glioma also varies and only about 5% of alldog brain tumors are GBM [28, 29].
The inbred VM mouse strain is unique in expressing arelatively high incidence (1.5%) of spontaneous braintumors, most of which were characterized histologically asmalignant astrocytomas [30, 31]. The VM-M3 brain tumor
arose spontaneously in the forebrain of a VM mouse andexpresses properties of microglia/macrophages similar tothat seen in several types of invasive cancers of neuralsrcin [32–35]. The VM-M3 tumor cells are negative for
the astrocyte and neuronal markers GFAP and NF200,respectively [33]. However, the VM-M3 tumor cellsexpress high levels of the chemokine receptor gene,CXCR4, which has been linked to the invasive andmalignant properties of human gliomas [19, 33, 36–38].
High CXCR4 levels are more often associated with thehigher-grade gliomas, including GBM and are indicative of poor postoperative prognosis [37]. Similar to high-gradehuman gliomas, the VM-M3 tumor cells are highly inva-sive when implanted orthotopically and invading tumorcells can be found deep within the brain parenchyma [33,39]. The VM-M3 tumor cells are weakly immunogenic andcan be grown in the syngeneic VM mouse host with pre-dictable and reproducible growth rates [33, 40]. Moreover,
the invasive VM-M3 brain tumor expresses systemicmetastasis when grown outside the brain [33]. Whileextracranial metastasis is not commonly seen in mostpatients with glioblastoma, it is well documented thatsystemic metastasis is more common for glioblastoma thanfor any other human brain tumor type [41–45]. Hence, the
VM-M3 mouse brain tumor expresses several characteris-tics observed in human GBM.In addition, the VM-M3 tumors are labeled with theﬁreﬂy luciferase gene allowing for non-invasive detectionof tumor growth via bioluminescent imaging [33]. Biolu-minescent imaging has been developed for a number of glioma tumor model systems and is established as anaccurate measurement of tumor growth over time [13, 46,
47]. Hence, the VM-M3 tumor cells manifest severalcharacteristics seen in aggressive human malignant glio-mas to include GBM. Here we describe for the ﬁrst timethe invasive characteristics of the VM-M3 brain tumor inthe CNS using a novel bioluminescent-based invasionassay.
Methods
MiceMice of the VM/Dk (VM) strain were obtained as a giftfrom H. Fraser (University of Edinburgh, Scotland). TheC57BL/6 J mice were obtained srcinally from the JacksonLaboratory, Bar Harbor, ME. All mice used in this studywere housed and bred in the Boston College Animal Care
166 J Neurooncol (2010) 99:165–176
1 3
Facility using husbandry conditions as previously descri-bed [48]. All animal procedures were in strict accordancewith the NIH Guide for the Care and Use of LaboratoryAnimals and were approved by the Institutional AnimalCare Committee.Tumor formationThe VM-M3 and VM-NM1 tumors used in this study arosespontaneously in the cerebrum of adult VM mice. Thesetumors were detected during routine examination of theVM mouse colony over a period of several years (1993–2000). Each tumor-bearing mouse expressed cranialswelling and appeared lethargic with the males alsoexpressing priapism as we previously described [33]. Thesesymptoms appeared for only about 1–3 days before mor-bidity. The tumors were grossly identiﬁed in the cerebrumas poorly deﬁned masses (about 3
9
1
9
1 mm) similar tothose described previously for other independently arisingspontaneous tumors in the VM mouse brain [31, 39]. In
order to preserve in vivo viability, each tumor wasimmediately resected and implanted intracerebrally (i.c.)into host VM mice as described below. As soon as cranialdomes appeared, the tumors were passaged again intoseveral host VM mice. After a total of three i.c. passages,the tumors were grown subcutaneously (s.c.) and cell lineswere prepared from each tumor as described below. TheCT-2A tumor was srcinally produced through implanta-tion of 20-Methylcholanthrene into the cerebral ventricle of a B6 mouse and was broadly classiﬁed as a poorly differ-entiated highly malignant anaplastic astrocytoma [49].Tumor cell preparationTumor cell lines were prepared as described previously[33]. Brieﬂy, tumor tissue was removed from the mice andwas transferred to a Petri dish containing Dulbecco’sModiﬁed Eagle medium (DMEM, Sigma, St. Louis, MO)with high glucose (25 mM) supplemented with 10% fetalbovine serum (FBS, Sigma) and 50
l
g/ml penicillin–streptomycin (Sigma). The tumor tissue was minced thor-oughly to obtain a cell suspension. 1 ml of the cell sus-pension was then seeded into a tissue culture ﬂask containing DMEM (25 mM glucose, 10% FBS). The VMtumor cells were evaluated after a minimum of eight pas-sages to insure that the cells lines were uniformlyhomogeneous.Transduction of cell linesThe VM-M3 cell line was transduced with a lentivirusvector containing the ﬁreﬂy luciferase gene under controlof the cytomegalovirus promoter (VM-M3/Fluc) as wepreviously described (gift from Miguel Sena-Esteves) [33].Tumor implantationTumor implantation was performed as previously described[48]. Brieﬂy mice are anaesthetized with Avertin (0.1 ml/ 10 g). The tops of the heads are disinfected with ethanoland a small incision is made in the scalp of the mouse overthe midline. A 3 mm
3
burr hole is made in the skull overthe right parietal region behind the coronal suture andlateral to the sagittal suture. Using a trocar, a small(1 mm
3
) tumor fragment is implanted into the hole made inthe skull. The ﬂaps of skin are then immediately closedwith collodion. Additionally, some implants were per-formed using approximately 10,000–20,000 cells in 5
l
lPBS. The cells were injected into the right cerebral hemi-sphere using a Hamilton syringe. All tumor-implanted micereached morbidity at approximately 12–15 days regardlessof implant method. Both methods result in the implantationof tumor fragments or tumor cells approximately 1.5–2 mm deep into the cortical region as previously described[50]. Tumor cells are also highly invasive regardless of implant method. The mice were placed in a warm room(37

C) until they were fully recovered.ImagingThe Xenogen IVIS system (Xenogen, Hopkington, MA) isused to record the bioluminescent signal from the labeledtumors as we recently described [33]. Brieﬂy, for in vivoimaging, mice recieved an intraperitoneal injection of d-Luciﬁerin (50 mg/kg, Promega) in PBS and Avertin(0.1 ml/10 g). Imaging times ranged from 3 to 10 min,depending on the time point. For ex vivo imaging, brainswere removed and sectioned down the midline. Individualhemispheres were imaged separately in 300
l
g/ml d-Luciferin in PBS, and imaged from 3 to 10 min. After eachhemisphere was imaged, the cerebellum, brain stem, cortexand hippocampus were removed and imaged separately inan additional 300
l
g/ml d-Luciferin in PBS. The IVISLumina cooled CCD camera system was used for lightacquisition. Data acquisition and analysis was performedwith Living Image

software (Caliper LS).RT-PCRAll cell lines were grown under identical conditions asdescribed previously [51]. VM brain and VM-M3 tumorsamples were frozen at
-
80

C until time of analysis.Single strand cDNA was synthesized from total RNA andused for PCR ampliﬁcation as we previously described
J Neurooncol (2010) 99:165–176 167
1 3
Fig. 1
Comparative analysis of the growth behavior of mouse braintumors, VM-M3 and the CT-2A malignant astrocytoma. Small tissuefragments from the CT-2A and VM-M3 tumors were implanted intothe right cerebral hemisphere (i.c.) of their syngeneic host C57BL/6Jand VM strains, respectively. Brains were removed approximately11–15 days post implantation and were stained with haematoxylinand eosin (H&E) as described in ‘‘Methods’’ section. The CT-2Atumor shows a distinct tumor border with little local invasion and nodistant invasion. The VM-M3 tumor is highly invasive both locallyand distally with numerous secondary tumor lesions (
arrows
). Imagesare shown at
9
7.5
Day 6 Day 13 Day 15
AB
2.0E+054.0E+056.0E+058.0E+051.0E+06
P h o t o n s / s e c
highlow
1.0E+036 13 15
Days Post Implantation
mid
Photon scale
Fig. 2
Growth of the VM-M3/ Fluc tumor withbioluminescence imaging.
a
VM-M3/Fluc tumor fragmentswere implanted as described inFig. 1. Cranial images weretaken over 15 days(representative mouse shown).
b
Bioluminescence from thewhole mouse was quantiﬁed andplotted on a linear scale. Allvalues are expressed as themean of 6 independentsamples
±
SEM
Fig. 3
Detection of VM-M3/Fluc tumor cell invasion into thecontralateral hemisphere with bioluminescent imaging and histology.
a
VM-M3/Fluc tumor fragments were implanted as described inFig. 1. Removed brains were dissected into ipsilateral and contralat-eral hemispheres. Each hemisphere was imaged for bioluminescenceex vivo as described in ‘‘Methods’’ section. Bioluminescence fromeach brain half was quantiﬁed and plotted on a log scale. Biolumi-nescence in the contralateral hemisphere is indicative of distal tumorspread. The values are expressed as means
±
SEM of six independenttumor-bearing mice.
b
Histological analysis (H&E) was used tovalidate the presence of tumor cells in the contralateral hemisphere asdescribed in ‘‘Methods’’ section. Tumor cells are shown in thecontralateral hemisphere invading the neural parenchyma from thesub pial membrane (
arrows
). Images are shown at
9
200168 J Neurooncol (2010) 99:165–176
1 3
[52]. Primer sequences used for PCR were for
b
-actin,forward 5
0
-TGTGATGGTGGGAATGGGTCAG-3
0
andreverse 5
0
-TTTGATGTCACGCACGATTTCC-3
0
; for IG-FBP-2, forward 5
0
-GGGTACCTGTGAAAAGAGACG-3
0
and reverse 5
0
-TGCAGGGAGTAGAGATGTTCC-3
0
; forCXCR4, forward 5
0
-CTACAGCAGCGTTCTCATCC-3
0
and reverse 5
0
-GGATGACTGTCGTCTTGAGG-3
0
. Prim-ers were optimized for annealing temperatures and cyclenumbers as previously described [52]. RT-PCR productswere separated on a 1–1.6% agarose gel containing ethi-dium bromide and visualized by UV light. RT-PCR wasperformed on the total RNA of each sample in the absenceof reverse transcriptase to control for possible DNAcontamination.Confocal microscopyCells in culture were maintained as previously described[51]. Cells were seeded in glass-chambered slides in com-plete DMEM (Sigma) media. After 24 h cells were stimu-lated with 100 ng/ml of CXCL-12 (SDF-1) in serum freemedia for 30 min. Cells were washed and ﬁxed with 4%formaldehyde for 20 min at 37

C. After blocking with 10%goat serum in 0.1% BSA, cells were incubated with CXCR4primary antibody (1:100) for 1 h followed by secondaryantibody (1:100) incubation for 1 h at room temperature.Cells were washed and stained with Hoechst for 10 min andmounted. Corresponding wells without primary antibodyserved as negative controls.
1.0E+08
A
1.0E+041.0E+051.0E+061.0E+07
P h o t o n s / s e c
1.0E+03
C CCortex Hippocampus
B
500
µ
m 500
µ
m500
µ
m 500
µ
mI I
II CC
100
µ
m100
µ
m
200
µ
m200
µ
m
Cortex Hippocampus
Fig. 4
Bioluminescent and histological analysis of distal tumorspread to the cortex and hippocampus. VM-M3/Fluc tumor fragmentsor cells were implanted as described in Fig. 1. Removed brains weresectioned through the midline and were further dissected into thecortex and hippocampus.
a
Bioluminescence was quantiﬁed andplotted on a log scale. All values are expressed as the mean
±
SEMof 10 independent samples.
b
Histological analysis (H&E) was usedto validate the presence of tumor cells as described in ‘‘Methods’’section.
Top panel
images are shown from left to right at
9
100,
9
50,
9
50, and
9
100. The
black boxes
from the
top panel
images areshown in higher power in the
bottom panel
.
Bottom panel
images areshown from left to right at
9
400,
9
200,
9
200, and
9
400.
Arrows
indicate invasive tumor cells. I, ipsilateral; C, contralateralJ Neurooncol (2010) 99:165–176 169
1 3

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